Doc Rivers Credits Undermanned Lakers for Offering Sixers Tough Challenge

Coming off of one of their most impressive wins of the year while shorthanded, the Philadelphia 76ers returned to the court to face the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.

After missing Joel Embiid and James Harden on Monday, the Sixers got their two stars back in the mix ahead of the Lakers matchup.

While the Sixers were fully healthy once again on Wednesday, the Lakers couldn't say the same. Not only did Los Angeles' star big man Anthony Davis remain out of the mix on Wednesday, but LeBron James also missed the game with knee soreness.

James missed the Lakers' matchup against the Sixers with knee soreness earlier in the year. His absence was significant as the Lakers took on a blowout loss in South Philly.

While LeBron and Davis' absences were obviously noticeable on Wednesday night, the Lakers found much better results going against the Sixers this time around.

Keeping It Close

After outscoring the Sixers in the first quarter, the Lakers found the game getting away from them a bit as the Sixers went on a run before halftime, which put them out in front with a nine-point lead.

In the second half, the Lakers came out hot in the third quarter and outscored Philadelphia 39-32 to have the game within a one-possession reach going into the fourth quarter.

While the Sixers found the edge and prevented the Lakers from ever completing the comeback, Philly head coach Doc Rivers understands that his team's performance against the undermanned Lakers wasn't exactly ideal.

Rivers and the Sixers are certainly happy to get the win, but the head coach offered plenty of credit to the Lakers for stepping up without their top two stars and nearly pulling off the upset against the Sixers.

Credit to LA

"We won the game," said Rivers. "I'll just leave it at that. We played and won the game. It wasn't a masterpiece at all. I just think maybe sometimes we look at a different lens. We scored 126 points, and we shot 52-percent. I thought we weren't very good offensively, which is amazing when you think about how good we should be and can be."

The Sixers gave up a lot of points defensively, but they answered with 126 points as four out of five players in their starting lineup scored over 20 points on Wednesday. Although many expected the Sixers to put down a LeBron-less Lakers team with ease, but Los Angeles was motivated to really step up with him out.

"You can tell LeBron, and those guys weren't out there, and we played that way," Rivers continued. "But give them credit, Frank kept those guys playing hard. They moved the ball. Ran good stuff. Give them a lot of credit. That's a lot of firepower sitting on the bench."

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.